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Reflections of Verbal Syntax in Nominalization and Adjectivization

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Reflections of Verbal Syntax in Nominalization and Adjectivization Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 44(3), 2008, pp. 284–301 © School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland doi:10.2478/v10010-008-0014-y REFLECTIONS OF VERBAL SYNTAX IN NOMINALIZATION AND ADJECTIVIZATION ADAM BIAŁY University of Wrocław [email protected] ABSTRACT In Distributed Morphology (DM), morphology is seen as a reflection of syntactic processes and requirements. Since DM is an essentially syntax-based approach to word formation processes, and derivation in particular, it assumes the retention of original structure in a given process of derivation where a new form is created. For example, the structure for the verb integrate has to be contained within the structure for the derived noun integration . The question is what consti- tutes the structure of integrate , and to what extent it is preserved in the structure of the deverbal noun. Following Borer (2003) and Harley (in press), the analysis of the relationships between such related forms reveals important rules governing phrase structure in general. The paper focuses mainly on Polish nominalization and adjectivization data and sets it against similar investigations conducted on English (e.g., Harley in press). The aim of the analy- sis is to investigate whether the accounts proposed for languages such as English, in the spirit of DM, can be maintained for Polish. The results also add to the general discussion of what part of meaning, or interpretation, should be associated with the lexical root (i.e. lexicon), and what part is inherently structural or functional. KEYWORDS : derivation; categorization; participials; scalar structure. 1. The background Approaches to syntax, such as Distributed Morphology (DM) (Halle and Marantz 1993, 1994), reject the multi-layer view on language representation in favour of a monolithic one. As a result, the “older” generative assumption that morphology and syntax are two separate components of grammar is rejected. In DM, natural language is argued to pos- sess a repertoire of syntactic or functional projections which are mapped onto seman- tics/interpretation. Languages may differ in three respects. Firstly, there is a fixed reper- toire of structural/functional projections from which a subset is assigned to a particular language; secondlly, the positions for these projections in the overall structure of a sen- tence may be different; thirdly, they may lack overt morphological items to check a 284 A. Biały given position. DM provides a linguist with two kinds of tools that can be used to check the structural build-up of a given language: morphology and meaning. This results from the assumption that syntactic structure is interpretable (a common denominator of all constructionist approaches). 1 The aim of the paper is to investigate Polish categorization data and compare it with similar investigations conducted on English (e.g. Harley in press). The analysis focuses on derived constructs which arise as a result of verbalization, nominalization, and adjec- tivization. The discussion is strongly based on the account of Jabłońska (2007) and can be seen as a minor refinement of that approach in matters relevant for the subject matter of this paper. The results contribute to the general discussion of which part of meaning, or interpretation, should be associated with the lexical root (i.e. lexicon), and which part is inherently structural or functional. 2. Categorization in DM DM makes use of two classes of terminal nodes: a-categorial roots (√s) and grammati- cal elements of various kinds ( f-morphemes , which correspond to functional projections in many other approaches). Roots acquire a category when they merge with a given f- morpheme in the course of the syntactic derivation. The category creating f-morphemes are: v° (verbalizer), n° (nominalizer), a° (adjectivizer). 2.1. Nominalizations in DM In DM derivation is seen as a cyclical process and it is directly correlated with mor- phology. Once a given structure is derived, it is retained in the course of further deriva- tion. The relevant example is the nominalization of a verbal base where the noun retains some characteristics of the underlying verb, like Case assignment and adverbial modifi- cation, in (1c), but not in (1b, d). (1a) John unwillingly sold the car. (1b) John’s unwilling sale of the car led to his nervous breakdown. (1c) John(’s) unwillingly selling the car led to his nervous breakdown. (1d) John’s unwilling selling of the car led to his nervous breakdown. On the basis of such bahaviour, Harley (in press) distinguishes two types of nominaliza- tions: “ACC-ing nominalizations” (1c) and “OF-ing nominalizations” (1b, d), and lists the following properties of the two. 1 This approach is succintly described in Harley (2006): “wherever you see a morpheme, there must be a corresponding terminal node in the structural analysis of the sentence. Where you don’t see a morpheme, there may well be a terminal node filled by a ∅ element; this happens all the time in English.” Verbal syntax in nominalization and adjectivization 285 (2) ACC-ing properties: Verbal characteristics: Accusative Case assignment, adverbial modification OF-ing properties: Nominal characteristics: of -Case assignment, adjectival modification Harley, following Kratzer (1996), postulates that the difference between the two types of -ing nominals results from the position in which the nominalizing suffix is attached in the derivation. The low position (above a subject-introducing projection) results in the OF-ing type (4). The high position, the position at which external argument and ACC Case are assigned, results in the ACC-ing structure (3). In Marantz (1997), the verbalizing vº head is associated with the external argument- introducing vP shell. The projection becomes verbal when the root gets affixed to vº (the verbalizer) via head-movement. OF-ing nominals lack the verbalizing vP above the root, so they fail to reveal verbal characteristics. (3) presents the structure for John sell- ing the car , while (4) is the structure for an OF-ing nominalization, nominalization of verbs . (3) John selling the car 286 A. Biały (4) ominalization of verbs (Marantz 1997) (5) Full verbal structure including agent-introducing head (Harley in press) Harley (in press) argues, contrary to Marantz, that many deverbal nominals (OF-ing type) contain the verbalizing morpheme -ize , so they should contain the verbalizing pro- jection (v°) in line with DM criteria. As indicated by the example in (3), the v° projec- tion is associated with the FP, which in turn gives rise to the Accusative Case assigning ability. This ability is clearly absent in the nominalization of verbs , where the object ar- gument has to be realized in a PP. The way out of this dilemma is to dissociate the ver- balizing projection from the Accusative Case checking and external argument assigning projections (5), as it is done in Pylkkänen (2002). Verbal syntax in nominalization and adjectivization 287 The analysis of nominals indicates that derivation proceeds in a clearly defined fashion with given parts of the projection being associated with particular interpretation. The lower part of the projection is associated with nominal characteristics, whereas the upper part is “verbal”. Such analysis meets the assumption adopted in this paper that categorization is an interpretative notion and is associated with sequential derivation. 2.1.1. Nominalization in Polish The division into ACC-ing and OF-ing nominals (cf. (1b, c, d)) is not accounted for in Polish. (6a) sprzedaż samochodu przez Janka sale car-Gen by John (6b) sprzedanie samochodu przez Janka selling car-Gen by John (6c) *Janek sprzedanie samochód John-om selling car-Acc (6d) *sprzedaż przez Janka ‘sales by Janek’ The distinction that is observable in Polish is between result (6a, d) and process nomi- nals (6b). Grzegorczykowa and Puzynina (1999) distinguish “regular” nominals in (7a), and “irregular” nominals in (7b). These types of nominals also differ with respect to the type and number of categorial characteristics they share. The irregular nominals (7b), for example, exhibit restrictions with respect to the arguments they license. (7a) pocałowanie Zosi (przez Janka) kissing Zosia-Gen (by John) (7b) *pocałunek Zosi (przez Janka) kiss Zosia-Gen (przez Janka) Pocałowanie can license the direct argument, but pocałunek cannot. The nominal po- całunek Zosi in (7b) becomes acceptable when the interpretation is changed and Zosia is interpreted as the Agent. This is illustrated with additional context in (8). (8) Tomek pragnął zachować każdy pocałunek Zosi w pamięci. ‘Tom wished to keep Zosia’s every kiss in his memory.’ 288 A. Biały Polish nominals do not allow adverbial modification but they can be modified by adjec- tival modifiers. 2 (9a) nagła/*nagle sprzedaż samochodu ‘sudden/suddenly sale of the car’ (9b) nagłe/*nagle sprzedanie samochodu ‘sudden/suddenly selling of the car’ The fact that there exist constructs which seem to behave inaccordingly with their tradi- tional categorial labelling is addressed by Jabłońska (2007), who postulates that nomi- nal and verbal projections should be differentiated on a functional sequence. The func- tional sequence is responsible for the aspectual and thematic meaning that differentiates Agent and Patient arguments. 3 In this system, all functional meaning is interpretative and it is related to specific projections in the functional sequence. The projection of relevant layers of the functional sequence is reflected by morphological markers. Nominals in Polish do not exhibit verbal characteristics, such as Case assignment and adverbial modification, because they do not reach the layer of derivation in which Case and agentive characteristics are assigned. Categorisation is seen as an interpretative no- tion relating to the hierarchical development of the derivation. Jabłońska (2007) argues that Polish nominals cannot “take over” verbal morphol- ogy – they can only realise the bottom or right-side part of the structure. Thus, they are not structural Case assigners and they do not allow adverbial modification associated with higher functional projections.
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